Back in slate city another meeting was taking place between a small group of people in a secluded building.
The group of people who were working together and had sent their men to attack Ki on her way back had not returned yet so they met up once again.
They came to the conclusion that either their men had died while completing their task, they had fled after failing or completing the task or they had failed the task and were wiped out during the battle.
Either way it was bad for them because they sent their best men to kill her but they had yet to return and with every passing day they still heard no word of their men being seen or received any messages from them.
Since they had suddenly lost their main elite group that they used for getting rid of their enemies or protecting themselves, they had become weakened a great deal and were now very vulnerable to attack.
After many meetings to check if anything had been heard about their men they became less and less optimistic about their return.
Finally the head of the group spoke up and decided. "Send someone across the border to contact the family for more support and report that we have lost our best team when we sent them out on a task and explain the circumstances behind why we had to act and any other details."
They had waited long enough so they could only assume the worst so they had no choice but to report to their superiors and request additional aid.
As for whether their superiors would assist them further was still unknown because they had never failed so badly until now.
Even the transcendent experts that had been given to assist them had not returned so their superiors would not be happy with how they had handled everything.
In fact many of them believed that they would be punished for their actions and failure but little did they know that this was the least of their worries.
Just as their people were crossing the border as ordered the warlord sect sent their people to follow and monitor them.
Ki received word right away about where they were heading so she sent a letter to Marilyn to help monitor them further and gather more intelligence on who is supporting them behind the scenes.
With her information network she should be able to find out everything very soon with a little investigation.
Ever since Ki had put the Warlord sect within her grasp she could easily begin to interfere with those enemy groups and cut off contact with their superiors and isolate them but instead she only requested for them to be monitored so that she could find out about those behind them.
A week had passed and the investigation was successful.
Nobody on Ki's side had been discovered during the investigation but Ki had obtained a lot of information about who was behind them.
After the investigation Ki was sitting with Lumi and Rayleigh in a room and Marilyn walked in and sat down.
She took out some documents and then began to read everything they had found. "We have found out where they had reported to and found out some things. I believe that these are some of the remnants that had a part in the massacre of the divine ice sect in the past but they did not directly take part in it. They merely provided some outside assistance and manipulated some things behind the scenes so that the sect would suffer some losses before the scheduled attack on them. Although part of the unorthodox alliance, the family supporting or using them are in fact Rayleigh's fathers noble family the Wraith family. I believe that in order to gain a foothold in the north her fathers family had sent some lesser family members to settle in slate city and set up a branch family there of half bloods."
Rayleigh looked up with a frown and then looked over the information and sighed. "So it is him again.."
Detecting her hostility Ki couldn't help but take a look towards Rayleigh for a moment to detect any additional emotions she had displayed but found no love or sign of missing her family so she spoke up. "It seems like a typical example of the family sending their family members with a lesser status to integrate with the northerners and mix their blood with them. Once they have gained a foothold within the city they can begin to assist the family once again. During the time that Rayleigh was told to join the Divine ice sect they further put forward their plans to make connections with their branch family. With the main and branch families in place and all they needed was a bridge to connect them which was the divine ice sect in the middle. I believe this could be a forty plus year old plan by their family."
Rayleigh looked at Ki in shock. "I didn't know that such terms were discussed with the grand elder before my arrival at the sect… I thought I was just there as a spy for the family. To think that I would also be a bargaining chip for the family to be able to smoothly pass through the border and improve their source of income.."
Ki nodded and then added. "If they had stuck to their plans they may have been able to establish a strong foothold within the city and maybe even the capital over a long time but their biggest problem was that they are under the influence of the unorthodox alliance who had their own plans. They had to abandon their long laid out plan and assist with the destruction of the divine ice sect instead, your main job changed from being a bargaining chip for the family to a spy very quickly as the unorthodox alliance made use of your families connections to the north."
Marilyn coughed and then spoke. "The state of the family is not what it was before and they have lost many of their main descendants and heirs so the head of the family has been busy sowing seeds and trying to appease those around him so that he can rebuild the family. The other people have been putting a lot of pressure on the family over the years but it has begun to reduce lately. Even if they could spare the men to assist the northern branch of the family they would not wish to risk what they have left."
Ki nodded and then came to a conclusion. "It is likely that they have suffered because of Rayleigh's escape along with many of the divine ice sects most valuable things and also because she has not shown up back home so they cannot catch her. Her family had to take responsibility so they have been punished for a long time. Now that they know of my name, what we hope to achieve and the fact that I had survived the assassination they will either ask for assistance from others if they still have a voice within the unorthodox alliance or they will have no choice but to not do anything even if it means abandoning the northern branch of the family."
If the Wraith family knew that Ki had already accomplished their long term goal that they had to abandon in the matter of less than a month then their elders or ancestors would be turning over in their graves.
Now that they were no longer receiving their punishment they were beginning to stabilise themselves once more and rebuild but the sudden loss of their hidden forces within the north was not good for them.
Now they had to re-evaluate whether it was beneficial for them to offer any further assistance to the branch family or whether it was better to let them handle their problems on their own.
The biggest problem right now was Ki's name and the information they knew about her being exposed to the outside world through them so Ki had no choice but to act cautiously as possible.
She took a small breathe and then looked towards Rayleigh. "It is possible that we have to silence them before they spread out any information about me or whatever conclusions they have come up with about the families hidden strength that allowed me to survive and wipe out their men during the assassination. Do you mind this happening?"
Rayleigh looked down and then turned to look into Ki's eyes speaking coldly. "They never cared for me since I had been born. All they have done is abuse and use me… even if I returned to the family after gaining everything from the sect for them they would not treat me any better or reward me for completing my mission. Now that I have abandoned them after the fall of the sect they would be eager to capture me just to turn me into the unorthodox alliance just so they can make their own lives easier but also for revenge against me for betraying them. I won't care if they die whether it's by your hand, someone else's or even my own. If you ask me to I would gladly help to wipe off that man's arrogant smile."